Archive for the ‘Abstract Art’ Category

Orbital Decay is a work of algorithmic art I created last night and is 25 by 25 inches when printed at 300ppi (pixels per inch). To create this art I used an interactive algorithmic art program I finished writing yesterday. Traditionally algorithmic art was defined as art created by a largely deterministic, algorithmic process using parameters to control the process. Complicating the matter of categorization has been the introduction of that category of digital art known as generative art – which has substantial overlap with the algorithmic art category with respect to how the art is created from a computational perspective. In fact it has been argued that algorithmic art is a subset of generative art – even though the former precedes the later. Wikipedia has this to say on the subject:

Algorithmic art, also known as computer-generated art, is a subset of generative art (generated by an autonomous system) and is related to systems art (influenced by systems theory). Fractal art is an example of algorithmic art. Source: Wikipedia entry for algorithmic art

Why Algorithmic and not Generative?

So why have I categorized Orbital Decay as a work of interactive algorithmic art and not as a work of generative art? That’s a good question because this work does qualify as a work of generative art. However as I am the artist I get to decide what I want to call it – although I could argue that to label this art as generative would be equally appropriate.

You will note I have added the qualifier interactive to the algorithmic label. I did this because the creation of this artwork did require direct interaction from me. Unlike traditional algorithmic art programs which can be driven entirely by parameters and parametric settings (an autonomous system), this program as written could not create anything without the artist’s direct input throughout the creation process.

Orbital Decay is available as wall art and as illustration on a variety of products offered by Redbubble. Clicking either the link button or the image below will take you to the Orbital Decay Redbubble product page.

One of the projects I undertook over the Thanksgiving holidays was to create a new series of abstract algorithmic artworks. The first of these artworks that I’ve made available on Redbubble and Crated is the piece Euclidean Chaos.

The Euclidean in the title is a reference to Euclidean geometry. Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system described by the Greek mathematician Euclid in his textbook on geometry titled simply Elements, written sometime around 300 B.C. The fundamental "space" in Euclidean geometry is the plane. The chaotic aspect of Euclidean Chaos is, what is visually, a countless number of intersecting planes which constitute the artwork.

My analogy for this artwork is the cosmological concept of the multiverse or parallel universes – a system wherein there exists an infinity of non-interacting universes, each unaware of the other’s existence.

I hope you like Euclidean Chaos and will visit its pages on Redbubble and Crated (by clicking the buttons above) to see the variety of art product offerings available for this artwork.

Coastal Cliffs At Sunset is my newest work of digital art – which I completed on the Fourth of July. Stylistically I’m not sure how I would categorize this art. Clearly it is not representational art. It’s not really abstract art though it features abstraction. It’s not cubist either though it uses elements of cubism. Nor is it surreal – although in creating this artwork I employed some surrealism.

The creation of this artwork came on the heels of my creation of Stepping Through Time using a new workflow and algorithmic processing technique I developed. In fact the process that I used to create Coastal Cliffs At Sunset is very similar to the process I used to create Stepping Through Time – which you can see on either Redbubble or CRATED.

Computational Synthesis is a work of digital art I completed a few days ago which combines elements of algorithmic art and generative art with continual input from the artist. At the time I created this work I had no idea what to title the piece. In creating this artwork, I did have a clear idea visually and aesthetically of what I wanted to create but had given no thought to a title. After completing the piece, I turned to social media. I posted the artwork in a few places and asked for suggestions as to a title. Some suggested titles were:

Abstract Structure

Digital City

Discreet Time

Constructor Theory

Shifting Perspectives

Cityscape, Sky View

Aerial View Of Cyberscape

Monolith Metastasis

Fragmentation

While I did not use any of these titles, I do owe a thanks to the people who suggested them as they served as input to my thought process. Giving a title to a work of art can lead the observer in a certain direction when they are viewing the artwork. In choosing a title, I had to determine how well the title fit with what I was trying to say artistically. And therein lay my chief problem in coming up with a title.

I finally decided on Computational Synthesis as the title. Typically when one thinks of computational creativity, it is more in terms of the "machine" itself being the creator with the source of its creativity being within the framework of its design. In the case of this artwork, the computational component refers to my use of computational methods to produce a particular aesthetic style while synthesis points to the fact that I, the artist, was an equal partner in the creative process.

I created this artwork using an evolved version of a program I created and wrote about in Artistic Creativity and the Evolution of an Idea. For comparison, take a look at a previous artwork I created using an earlier version of this program:

Following are links to the open edition version of Computational Synthesis on Redbubble and Crated, as well as a link to my contact page if you are interested in the availability of the limited edition print version of this artwork.

In closing, the question I ask myself is am I satisfied with the state of the program I used to create this artwork or do I want to continue to explore evolutionary pathways? I have no answer at the moment but ultimately that answer may well depend on whether or not I have a Eureka moment.

Fresh Brewed Coffee is a digital painting I completed a few days ago. Just as macro photography provides us with extreme close-up views of things, Fresh Brewed Coffee is a work of macro art in that it represents a close-up view of the bubbles on the surface of a freshly brewed cup of coffee. What I particularly like about this macro perspective is that it lends the artwork an abstract appearance. You can click the image above to see an enlarged wallpaper of this art.

Now I’ve been making coffee using a coffee press (aka French press) for years but I had never really "looked" at those bubbles that were floating around on the surface. Perhaps it was the lighting, but it was this one instance of brewing coffee that inspired me to create this particular artwork.

To create the artistic effect I wanted, I did some rewriting of one of my generative art programs. This involved modifying both basic functionality as well as the variety and scope of the parameters associated with the paint brush engine. FYI, what initially inspired me to write my own painting programs was a combination of the limitations of the Adobe Photoshop paint brush engine with a desire to create art that was unique to me – since I do not make my programs commercially available. For those digital artists who are also software savvy, I suggest checking out Processing (Java), openFrameworks (C++), or Cinder (C++).

The version of Fresh Brewed Coffee shown here is the open edition version and is available for purchase online at the following print-on-demand (POD) sites:

Over the last several days I’ve created a number of new works of algorithmic art. One of these pieces is Tunnel Vision – shown above. After creating this particular artwork I began to wonder if the orientation I had used in its creation would actually be the orientation that other people would find to be the most aesthetically appealing. To get an idea of what that answer might be I posted the image below to several art groups and asked people to identify which of the four orientations they found to be the most aesthetically pleasing.

The Four Artwork Orientation Choices

While early voting had A as the overwhelming preference, by the time voting was effectively over, D had emerged as a close runner up. With respect to the two portrait oriented choices, I find it easy to see why D was clearly preferred to C as that’s the choice that I find more aesthetically pleasing. With respect to the two landscape oriented choices, option A was clearly preferred over option B. Again I agree.

Abstract Art Orientation Survey Results

Taking a step back, you can see in the survey results that there is almost a 50-50 split between people selecting a landscape orientation versus a portrait orientation. So the real challenge is choosing between options A and D with the core question being does this artwork work better as a portrait-oriented artwork or as a landscape-oriented artwork? Given the symmetry of this piece, I think the answer to this question is really one of personal taste.

Creating Tunnel Vision

In creating Tunnel Vision, I was working with a program that is a descendant of a very simple spirograph program I had written for a class I taught on using Processing to create digital spirographs and harmonographs. The image below is an example of the type of output that original spirograph program created.

Original spirograph program output

Over a period of time I gradually enhanced and expanded that program along several separate aesthetic lines of evolution. Tunnel Vision is the result of one of those evolutionary lines.

And My Aesthetic Vote Is…

When I created Tunnel Vision, I did so with the orientation of the canvas corresponding to option A. And it was with that landscape orientation in mind that I modified various parameters to create a work that satisfied my personal aesthetic. Fortunately for me the survey results served as a confirmation of the creative choices I had made.

Open Edition Prints

Open edition prints of Tunnel Vision are available from the following art print sites: